We in Oil Country seem to have a compelling need to single out a player and make him the whipping boy for the shortcomings of the Edmonton Oilers, to channel our frustrations over the failure of the team through them. Given the 10 years of ineptitude fans here have endured watching the Oilers miss the playoffs each and every year since 2006, that’s understandable -- even if it doesn’t make sense.

Math experts tell me that we have to wait 20 games in order to begin to trust our suspicions—which means we are close to being able to express real concern about specific items. Up first on my list? Leon Draisaitl's 5x5 offense. (Photo by Mark Williams, all rights reserved)

It's more of a 'Bottom to Top' but 'Top to Bottom' sounds better. This is a monthly feature where I'll do a dive into each team's underlying numbers to see if they match up with where they currently sit in the standings.

It's been one month. At this point, we can, in most cases, start to see patterns unfolding that indicate whether teams are good or bad based largely on their underlying numbers. Still, though, one month isn't an entire season. While we can start to get a decent picture of what's going on, there are teams who haven't yet hit their stride, are struggling to adapt to new rosters or coaches, or are simply overachieving based on a hot goalie or strong performances due to a favourable schedule. Let's see who, after one month, is as good or as bad as their place in the standings indicates.

After a 7-1 start the Oilers are now 2-5-1 in their last eight. In half of their 16 games they have allowed a goal within the first 2:37. "That’s on no one but the players, not being ready to play, not being ready to go," said Milan Lucic, so please don't argue it's on the head coach.

The Rangers score 1:20 into last night's game. Dallas scored 28 seconds in on Friday. Pittsburgh scored at the 1:57 mark, and the Islanders scored 13 seconds after puck drop. In four of their last five games they've put themselves in a hole before most fans were even in their seats.

They battled back and won in Brooklyn. In Pittsburgh they scored the next three before losing on a bad luck own goal late in the third, and they tied Dallas three minutes later on Friday, but it is still a horrible trend they need to correct.

It is even harder to comeback when many of their players are in offensive funks.